How to interactively simplify polygon and polyline datasets?

Recently, I need simplify a couple of shapefile maps so that they can be loaded into  mobile reports for SQL Server 2016 Reporting Services.

Mapshaper’s web interface comes to the rescue. The latest version of the web interface is online at http://www.mapshaper.org. Mapshaper works in recent versions of Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Opera. If you encounter out-of-memory errors while editing a large file, try Firefox, which has been used successfully with Shapefiles larger than 1GB.

I am surprised that maps of over 50MB can sometimes be reduced to less than 1MB. It is therefore very useful for creating lighter weight maps suitable for online publishing (for example, for web-based interactive maps). MapShaper also has options for repairing intersections and preventing shape removal.

Simplification recommendations:
I would like to recommend the Visvalingam simplification with a custom weighting for making maps because it generally does a better job of removing details that are too small to be displayed clearly.

My Tech Insights 2014 – Office 365 Edition Slides

Thank you for attending my session at Tech Insights 2014 – Office 365 Edition! I hope you have all managed to return to your daily cycles with ease after the event. It was my pleasure to have you and hope you enjoyed your time at Tech Insights 2014 – Office 365 Edition. As promised, I am posting my slides for my session. 🙂

Enjoy!

Download URL:

Develop, Build, Package, and Deploy SharePoint and Office Apps with Napa Development Tools

Tech Insights 2014 – Office 365 Edition

I will be speaking “Develop, Build, Package, and Deploy SharePoint and Office Apps with “Napa” Development Tools” at “Tech Insights – Microsoft Cloud Office 365 Edition”. Many thanks to the event organizer for inviting me as a speaker at the event. The event will be held at Microsoft Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Level 26, Tower 3, Petronas Twin Towers, Persiaran KLCC, 50088 Kuala Lumpur on July 9, 2014.

Session Synopsis:
One of the biggest issues in getting started with SharePoint development are the steps you need to go through, and the heavy duty machine you need to invest in, to create a development environment for a SharePoint and Office developer. With the introduction of SharePoint and Office apps, everything has changed! With the advent of apps – for both Office and SharePoint in Office 365, you can actually develop compelling functionality for this cloud-based environment. In this session, you will learn how to build, package, and deploy SharePoint and Office apps with Napa.

Manually install the prerequisite updates for Internet Explorer 10

The installation of Internet Explorer 10 requires an Internet connection download a set of prerequisite updates. You may download the prerequisite updates for offline installation of Internet Explorer 10.

The following are the list of prerequisite updates may require a system restart after installation. However, you can safely ignore individual restart requests and just restart the system after all the updates are installed.

1. 2729094 – An update for the Segoe UI symbol font in Windows 7 and in Windows Server 2008 R2 is available

32-bit package: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=258384
64-bit package: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=258385

2. 2731771 – An update that provides new APIs for conversion between local time and UTC in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2 is available

32-bit package: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=272350
64-bit package: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=272351

3. 2533623 – Microsoft Security Advisory: Insecure library loading could allow remote code execution

32-bit package: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=254721
64-bit package: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=254722

4. 2670838 -A platform update is available for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1

32-bit package: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=272353
64-bit package: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=272354

5. 2786081 – Internet Explorer 10 does not save credentials for a website after you log off from or restart a computer that is running Windows 7 SP1 or Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1

32-bit package: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=285867
64-bit package: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=285866

ComCamp2014 – What’s new in Visual Studio 2013

A fellow friend of mine, Ming Man will be presenting “What’s New in Visual Studio 2013” in ComCamp2014. He will be covering a selected subset of the new features in Visual Studio 2013 such as:

. Peek Definition (Alt + F12)
. Enhanced Scrollbar
. Navigate To (Ctrl+,)
. Auto Brace Complete
. Move Line Up/ Down (Alt Arrow-Up/ Arrow-Down)
. New IDE Features for JavaScript
. and many more…

Ming Man is Microsoft MVP specializing in Visual C# since year 2006. He has more than 20 years of experience in software development. He has developed numerous software applications in COBOL, Java, classic Visual Basic, Visual Basic.NET, and Visual C#.

You may register for his session at this link:

https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032577242&Culture=en-MY

Where to download the full offline installer for Skype for Windows desktop

Recently, a few of friends asked me whether there are any possibilities to get hold of the full offline installer for Skype for Windows desktop. If you want to download the current full offline installer for Skype for Windows desktop, this is the link:

http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-full